Transcript: Mayor de Blasio, Commissioner Shea Hold Media Availability on Crime Statistics

February 4, 2020

Police Commissioner Dermot F. Shea: Good afternoon, everyone. We're now a month into 2020 and with the Super Bowl and Groundhog Day behind us – no offense on Groundhog Day. I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor –

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Wait. Wait a minute. This is not starting well.

[Laughter]

Commissioner Shea: And pitchers and catchers, reporting soon, I don't know about you but it's starting to feel like spring, particularly with the weather this week. In a moment you're going to hear from Chief Michael LiPetri to my right and what we're seeing regarding the crime picture in New York City. Let me be clear here – while we're seeing challenges, and there are challenges, we're also at the same time excited about where we are in 2020. Excited about the opportunities to build on neighborhood policing and our new youth initiative. Excited to continue to attack crime, if you will, before it gets entrenched. Excited because I know and I hear it every day from New Yorkers around the city about the positive work being done throughout New York City, between our cops and all the communities they serve.

Integral to this type of work is this center here where we sit, the Police Athletic League. I want to thank the entire staff here, and I know Fred is around somewhere, for hosting us today. For more than a hundred years, the PAL has been a close partner of the NYPD’s playing a crucial role in the lives of New York City's children. There are programs that revolve around academics, athletics, the arts, juvenile justice. Most importantly, the PAL inspires young people to realize their full potential. I could tell you that over the past two or three decades that men and women of the NYPD, as well, have done truly remarkable things to make and to keep New Yorkers safe.

Recently you've heard us speak about our renewed focus on our city’s young people and the necessity to help keep them on the right path. This is a multipronged approach that absolutely must include the full efforts of every City agency, every elected official, every community and faith-based organization, really every person and group in the city that we serve. This has to be a citywide effort, not just the NYPD. But we're certainly happy to take the lead and to work hard to organize it. In fact, our new youth coordination officers will be the nexus of all those efforts. They'll identify the kids on the cusp of crime, find the right programs, and make critical connections on their behalf. We're determined to breathe new life into programs all across this great city. And we’re determined to bring everyone to the table to get it done.

It's all part of our vow that we will not [inaudible] an inch in our mission to vigorously fight and prevent crime, and to never forget the victims of crime while at the same time continuing to build trust with every resident, the people who remain our greatest partners in sharing the highest levels of public safety for all. And with that, I'll turn it over to Mayor de Blasio.

Mayor: Thank you very much, Commissioner. Commissioner, to you and all the leadership of the NYPD here, I want to thank you. We're starting this year with a really important change of direction in terms of this focus on young people. And we'll be talking about it a lot more in the coming days, but this is how we get to the root of the challenge in this city. Our young people need to be reached in an entirely different way and the NYPD is going to take the lead in that effort and I think you're going to see that will allow us to get at crime at the root in a more structural way than ever before. This is something very different than the NYPD has attempted in its history. I know how passionate Commissioner Shea is about this focus on youth. I think it is going to be something transformative for this city and for this department.

We're here at Harlem PAL because this is a place that epitomizes already that crucial work and when we think about the Police Athletic League, we think about the connection between our officers and our young people. It's been out there in a variety of ways for a long time, but it's never been approached in the strategic way the Commissioner has now outlined. I think it's going to make a big difference. I want to thank everyone at Harlem PAL, especially Frederick Watts the Executive Director and Marcel Braithwaite the Director for Community Engagement. Thank you for the good work that you do and everyone here on your team does.

So, I'm hopeful about the new direction the NYPD is taking and I am very hopeful always about the NYPD because of its history of success. And at the same time we are all up here looking very squarely at the challenge that we see in front of us with the facts that have come to us throughout the month of January.

Overall crime up almost 17 percent among those key index crimes. That's cause for real concern. We take it seriously, we are focused on it. We can confront it and we can overcome it because that is the history of the NYPD. Now we've seen for a quarter-century, the NYPD always is able to confront each challenge and come up with new strategies and approaches. Some of those are going to be immediate and you'll hear about some of that today. But also again, the big directional change on focusing on youth is going to pay dividends many times over going forward. Even though the broad direction in January causes us real concern, it's also very important to note that, again, all these statistics are this January compared to last January, important good news, murders down, raped down this January compared to last so we see some things that are going in the right direction. We want to keep building on that. But the bottom line is I have absolute faith in the NYPD, a lot of tools at their disposal. They're adding new ones as we speak in terms of this youth strategy and I have confidence that we'll get to the right place.

The concept around approaching young people, I want to emphasize, this idea of taking what was created with neighborhood policing, with the idea of the neighborhood coordinating officer and now playing that out to a youth coordination officer, someone who thinks all the time about how to help kids and families, how to make sure if there's a sign of a problem that it's addressed right away so a kid does not get into trouble, does not go on the wrong path. Literally taking that child who might've ended up being part of a problem and making sure it never gets to that point.
That, to me, is extraordinary and I think it's going to yield great dividends again because we've seen it with neighborhood policing. I know we'll see it with the youth initiative as well. The fact is we have great examples, and this PAL center is one of them, where there's been a very tight bond between officers of the 2-8 Precinct and young people in this community. We've seen what it can do when that is fostered. It's going to now go to a much higher level all over this city.

Now, I'll conclude by saying this, and then just a few words in Spanish, the whole idea over these last six years is to create trust, to create a dialogue between police and community, to create greater respect. For years and years you've heard all around the desire for more respect. Community members desiring more respect from police, police desiring more respect from community members. What neighborhood policing has allowed us to do is to actually bring those strands together and create mutual respect, create a bond. We see the positive impact it has.

I want to say that what we saw on Friday was the exact opposite. A very small number of protesters – and I want to remind you in a city of 8.6 million people, we're talking about a handful of protestors, but what they did was absolutely inappropriate. They claim to be representing a cause and yet what they did would not help any cause. Vandalism doesn't help any cause. Spewing vile at police does not help any cause. It was disrespectful, did not represent the views of the overwhelming majority of New Yorkers. And I want to be very clear, that kind of thing isn't going to move us forward. And you did not see New Yorkers pick up on that and engage that very small group of people. I think a lot of people were repulsed. I certainly was one of them. So I just want to say that kind of activity gets us nowhere and is unacceptable.

What we need to do is respect each other. And I want to say what I think New Yorkers saw, but I want to say it very vividly, it is not easy for our officers who are there to protect everyone's democratic rights. And they did so brilliantly. They protected the right to protest even when horrible and inappropriate things were being said to our officers. But that's again an indication of the quality of the NYPD. Our democratic values are upheld every day by the NYPD and it doesn't matter which cause or which position is being taken by protesters. The NYPD treats everyone the same and maintains the peace. So I want to commend all of our officers who, on Friday, had to put up with a lot, but showed a lot of professionalism the whole way through. With that, a few quick words in Spanish –

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish]

With that, I'm going to turn to our Chief of Crime Control Strategies, Mike LiPetri.

Chief of Crime Control Strategies Michael LiPetri, NYPD: Thank you, Mayor de Blasio. Thank you, Commissioner Shea and thank you to the men and women of the NYPD who go out there every day and do a very difficult job. So, like the Commissioner said, for January, overall index crime did increase 1,222 crimes or approximately 16.9 percent. But as we all know, those 1,222 crimes affect many more victims. We're going to talk about the rise of grand larceny auto. It's not just the owner of that vehicle who are affected, how about the family that needs that vehicle to travel to work, to school? How about the family of three, four, or five that their house got broken into? It just doesn't affect the owner of the residence. How about the children that have to sleep there every night knowing that somebody broke into their house and went through their bedroom and stole things from their residence? So let's think about the victims, not just crime numbers. So as I said, five out of seven index crimes rose in 2019.

We saw rises in robbery, felony assault, burglary, and grand larceny. We saw this across the City of New York not just centered in one borough or one patrol borough. Every patrol borough rose in these five major categories with Staten Island seeing a very slight decrease. Shooting incidents rose in January of 2020 – 67 shooting incidents with 80 victims compared to 52 with 56 victims last year. And I will get specifically into each one of these index crimes.

Overall housing crimes rose 8.7 percent with 32 crimes. We saw an increase in the borough of Manhattan, specifically Housing Borough Manhattan North saw an increase of 27 crimes. What's driving those crimes? Robberies. What's driving those robberies? The same thing that drove the robberies for the past six months of 2020 that continue – I'm sorry, 2019 – that continues to drive the robberies of 2020, young groups of youths robbing other young victims targeting their electronics.

Transit crime. Transit crime saw an increase of 60 crimes. When you look at where those crimes are increasing Transit Borough Brooklyn, specifically Brooklyn North Transit, saw an increase of 25 crimes, again being driven by robberies, same motive as what we’ve seen citywide, young groups of individuals robbing other young victims.

As far as hate crimes, the Mayor touched on the hate crimes. We've seen an increase – I'm sorry, a decrease in hate crimes this year, 29 versus 38. When we looked at the decrease in the motivation of anti-Semitic, we're also down 21 versus 25. The vast majority, 16 out of those 21, are being driven by swastikas.

Murder. We've seen an increase in murder, 23 victims versus 29, 22 this year. We have one re-class from 2020. The person passed away in 2017 and the Medical Examiner deemed it a homicide this year. So out of the 22 incidents that happened this year, we do see an increase in domestic violence murders, seven versus five. All seven we have arrests for. One involved a child. Out of those seven, three were shot, two were stabbed, one was asphyxiated, and one was blunt trauma.

Shooting incidents. Like I said before, we had 67 shooting incidents with 80 victims. We have a lot more multiple shooting incidents with multiple victims this year. When we look at who is either a victim or a perpetrator in the 67 incidents, we see a large increase of somebody being on parole or probation. So 21 out of our 67 incidents or 31.3 percent involve either somebody on parole or probation. That is the largest number that we've seen since we started recording this back in 2003.

Rape. We do see a decrease in rape, 127 versus 155. We've also seen we're at the lowest percentage since 2017 of rape complaints prior to 2020. So, again, you know, we're continuing to reach out to victims. So that is, you know, that's something that we all know it's an under reported crime, but 45 percent of our rape complaints are prior to 2020. That's the lowest since 2017.

Robberies. We've been struggling with robberies for the past few months. When you look at multiple perp incidents, we're up 140 robberies this year with 36 percent. Shoplift gone bad. We've seen an increase in shoplifting, not only on our grand larceny side as far as petty larcenies and grand larcenies, but we also see individuals going into stores attempting to take merchandise and either a store worker or the owner of that small business trying to stop those individuals, force is used. That is now a robbery. Okay. We see an increase in that.

As far as our arrests, we are up with [inaudible] arrests overall and we're also up with under-18 perpetrators, and also we are up in under-18 victims. 26 percent of all our robbery perpetrators this year are under the age of 18. So like the Commissioner said, like the Mayor said, with our new youth strategy. So a couple of weeks ago, Commissioner Shea shared the kickoff to the youth strategy with the District Attorneys, with Corporation Counsel, and many other principals present at One Police Plaza. The actual first youth forum, or YouthStat, will take place on February 14th which will be chaired by myself and Chauncey Parker. We're going to have the whole borough of Manhattan present. Some of you might say, why'd you pick Manhattan? Well, Manhattan continues to struggle in youth-related robberies and youthful aided crime as it did in 2019 and it continues in 2020.

So what are some of the considerations that we are going to be doing for the youth forum? We're going to be looking at a lot of different things. We're going to be looking at youths who are on a domestic incident report, whether as the offender or the victim, that have never been arrested before in their life. We are going to be looking at youths who are also on a domestic incident report, six or more times, that have been arrested. We’re going to be looking at approximately 50 – we're going to be looking at a few youths who live in the borough of Manhattan, commit their crimes in a borough of Manhattan, and have been arrested ten or more times in their life with two robbery arrests in 2019. We're also going to look at additional cases and identify points of possible missed opportunities for intervention.

Felony assaults – domestic violence felony assaults have risen 14 percent, approximately 100 victims. That's approximately 43 percent of all felony assaults this year are driven by domestic violence. We have arrests on about 80 percent of those and as I spoke before, we have arrests on all our domestic violence murders.

We do see an uptick in homeless shelter assaults in the city. We have an increase of 14 – 16 versus two. Five of those are on employees, 11 of them are resident on resident.

Burglary – being driven by residential and commercial [inaudible]. So we talk about the buildings and we also talk about the dwellings. Every borough except – every patrol borough except Queen South and Staten Island sees an increase.

Grand larceny. Grand larceny, we're up approximately 9.6 percent or 358 victims. When we look at what's driving our grand larcenies, we see an increase in car breaks, not only on the grand larceny side of it, but the petty larceny side of it. What else do we also see? Shoplift. Not only on the grand larceny side of it, but the petty larceny side of it. Again, these are individuals going into hardworking people's business or other large corporations, taking property, and leaving.

Grand larceny auto – spiking throughout the city, up approximately 71 percent or 243 vehicles. But as I stated before, many more victims. What's driving those grand larcenies? Keys being left – key fobs being left in the vehicle, cars that are left running. We also see an increase in Ford Econoline vans. We've seen this before, unfortunately. They're older. A lot of these are older models. They're easy to steal and perpetrators do use those Ford Econolines for other crimes.

We talked about the increase in shooting incidents. The city, one of the toughest things to do, one of the most dangerous things to do is take a gun off the street. So we do see an increase in gun arrests. We do see an increase in felony arrests.

Thank you.

Commissioner Shea: So, I want to apologize, I notice as Mike is talking I think – it looks like we had some technical difficulties there, hopefully we get it squared away with the PowerPoint. I think it was showing some old slides, but start with on-topic crime?

Question: Commissioner and I guess [inaudible] what do you think is driving this spike in so many index crimes since the beginning of the year?

Commissioner Shea: Yeah, Katie, so I think I’m well on the record of some of my concerns of late. You know, I’ve gotten a few people who said to me, well how are you positive? I’m so positive because I know the work of the men and women in this department and what they are capable of doing. So challenges are not something new that is thrown up in our way, you know, Mike, Terry, every Thursday chair a COMPSTAT meeting when they drill down with incredible level of sophistication onto what’s driving crime in New York City and we’re going to continue to do that. We’re going to continue to keep New Yorkers safe.

Question: So, and you said it before, but just – I mean, you contributed it to the new bail reform?

Commissioner Shea: Listen – Katie, I’m on record. But the important thing here is what are we doing about it and what are we doing to keep New Yorkers safe and that’s something that we all agree on and, you know, we will do everything in our power to make sure that we remember the victims, we do everything we can to prevent crime in New York City, and I purposely started out with the youth strategy today because that’s attacking crime from beyond the traditional way’s that we will attack crime working with our partners in the criminal justice system. That’s probably an even more important aspect to this. Attacking crime, building upon neighborhood policing, that so much with Rodney to my right, Fausto to my right, Terry to my left, have put into place in the last couple years. And keeping people from ever getting involved. This, where we are sitting here, is the prime example of that. So, you know, I have the utmost confidence in all of our partners but most importantly the people who put a blue uniform on every day. They will keep people safe. Ashley?

Question: Commissioner, in your editorial in the Times, you said that you predicted that the bail reform would facilitate the release of people who were responsible for hundreds of crimes, is there any evidence from January arrests that any of those people were released because of the new bail law who would not have been released under the old law? And how do you compute that?

Commissioner Shea: I’ll keep it as brief – I think the answer the yes. I mean, I stand by those comments, I think that, you know, with the passing of the new law, we saw pretty, pretty - pretty dramatic increase in the people that were let out of Rikers in accordance with the law and that’s something that we will deal with. And to the second point of your question, we have seen, you know, Mike could get into example after example, but we have seen examples of people getting post-January 1st and then getting rearrested. So, I think the answer to your question is yes, but again, this is not our first rodeo either in the NYPD and laws come and laws go and we adapt. And the dedication of the men and women of this department, the ingenuity to build cases differently, to work with our partners in the criminal justice system, to work with the people that live and go to work every day in these communities to get them involved. We will – we have a challenge here, but we will get past this challenge and we will continue drive crime down in New York City.

Question: But is there any hard data? Because we can – there’ve been examples in the tabloids and other papers, but is there any hard data that there are people being released who would not have been released under the old law who have reoffended?

Commissioner Shea: Yes, and we can follow up and get you that data.

Question: Commissioner, talking about the bail issue, one of the factors that may be behind, apparently behind the crime increase, are there other things that you’ve given thought to, such as the marked reduction of stop and frisk, which may or may not –

Commissioner Shea: No –

Question: [Inaudible] –

Commissioner Shea: No –

Question: [Inaudible] –

Commissioner Shea: No –

Question: Criminals –

Commissioner Shea: No, I think that the – listen, this is what I’ve done for the last six-plus years and probably, whenever I do leave, and there is no plan to leave, but what I will be most proud of is how we changed how we police in this city and gotten more effective by doing less stops, Tony. So, that precision piece, I mean, if you went to a single COMPSTAT you would hear precinct commanders, lieutenants of detective squads, sergeants, talk with incredible clarity and detail about their subject matter expertise and talking about individuals, what school they go to or who their parole officer is or when they were arrested last and how we have changed how we police in this city moving away from 700,000 stops. We do not want to go back there and that has no correlation, to me, and that’s my opinion where we are today. We can absolutely continue to drive crime down without going back to that.

Marcia?

Question: Commissioner, I wonder how you feel about statements made today by Pat Lynch and the PBA saying that we’re in a public safety emergency, that bail reform is not the cause of our problem, that the problem is caused by what he calls failed leadership and a political culture that denigrates and devalues the work of the police officers.

Commissioner Shea: What was that last part?

Question: He says that the problem is caused by what he calls failed leadership and political culture that denigrates and devalues the work of the NYPD. This is a question for you and for the Mayor.

Commissioner Shea: Yeah, I would disagree with that. I think that, you know, when times get tough that’s when it’s more important than ever to work together. And that goes within the police department, within the union ranks, within elected officials and everyone else. You know, we have challenges here, there is no doubt, Mike related some of those numbers that obviously I have said are concerning to me, I think for all the right reasons because I’m concerned about New Yorkers. But I’m also at the same time, I’m optimistic and I have confidence and it’s more important than ever that we find a common ground, pull together, and find our way to keep New Yorkers safe.

Question: A lot of New Yorkers say that they don’t feel safe and they felt that they didn’t feel safe even before bail reform went into effect.

Commissioner Shea: Then we have more work to do. I mean, I certainly am out and about. That’s our prime goal. Whether you talk about a month or two ago when we went through that pretty significant uptick in hate crimes, and I’ve been out there many times myself, I know Terry has, I know Fausto has, and that’s by design, to make people see us, to talk to people, to engage with people, but also to make them feel safe. And so it’s a multilayered, it’s about the deployment and stopping it and making people feel safe, and I’m sure you could find somebody that feels that way but then we have more work to. And that’s really what our job is day-in and day-out.

Mr. Mayor?

Mayor: Yeah, Marcia, there is – I really think there are two kinds of people in New York City, there’s people who are rooting for New York City and there are people who are rooting against New York City. Look, I’m here with the leaders of the finest police force on earth, who have driven down crime the last six years in a row while building a much stronger relationship with communities. I give them immense credit for doing that and by the way, you take the big picture look, it’s been a quarter century of success for the NYPD. So if the head of a police union or anyone else wants to say that this city is going in the wrong direction, they are rooting against New York City, they are wishing for New York City to fail and that’s for their own political reasons.

Let’s be clear, you cannot look at a quarter century of consistent progress and ignore it. Everyday New Yorkers get that, they’re smart, they understand the NYPD has done an amazing job and they like the direction, and not just some, I’m talking about the vast majority of New Yorkers want to see a tighter bond between the NYPD and communities and feel that we have left a lot of those divisions in the past. So we’re always going to have challenges, but if you have faith in the NYPD - this is the great irony – do you have faith in the NYPD or not? I do, I do. Maybe Mr. Lynch doesn’t. I do.

Question: He’s basically saying that you haven’t supported [inaudible] –

Mayor: I’m telling you, show me how we can drive down crime for six years in a row, put 2,000 more officers on the street, repair the division between police and community, and that that’s not progress. Of course it’s progress. But Marcia, there are some people rooting against New York City. Let’s be clear, some people think that’s advantageous to their political position, some people think that helps them get attention. It’s really, really clear. If you have eyes to see, you know it’s the safest big city in America. That doesn’t mean the work is done. There’s lots more work to do. But it’s the safest big city in America. That’s just a fact.

Commissioner Shea: Gloria?

Question: Commissioner, so it sounds like you are directing – that you do see a correlation between the increase and the changes to bail reform. I know you’ve said that you’re on record, but I just wondered if you could go further and if you could respond to advocates who are saying that the police department shouldn’t be drawing a conclusion based on a month of policing. That that’s not enough information to draw a trend. And for the Mayor, I wonder if you agree with the conclusion of your Police Commissioner which is that there is a direct correlation between these two changes –

Mayor: I’m going to jump in and I understand it is the job – I respect it – it is the job of the media to ask the same question over and over, day in day out, week in week out. We both spoken to this a bunch of times very clearly and we are in the same place. Now, I think the statistical point, I’m just going to say it as a layman, I’m not the expert some of these guys are, we saw things emanating from this law starting take effect months ago and obviously now it’s in full effect. But the bottom line is, one, we’ve been a 100 percent clear and we are unified on what we feel. Two, we want to act on this productively.

So my view here is, we’ve raised concerns, we’re in dialogue with leaders in Albany about those concerns, and we want to move forward. In the meantime, this police force can handle anything thrown at them. They always have. So, I’m not – I for one am not going to keep repeating what I’ve said a bunch of times, it’s there. But what I’m confident about is, there’s a way forward, not only in the ways that we’re going to address strategies and specific approaches, which is what COMPSTAT is all about, but also I believe the dialogue in Albany will be productive.

Question: Commissioner, can you speak to the criticism that there isn’t enough information to be coming up with a trend?

Commissioner Shea: I think I’ve said it before Gloria, you know, when I say something I’ll say it because I think it has to be said in terms of speaking up for the victims of crime. I stand behind what I said. But again, we have to work together now, what’s the way forward?

Question: I’m wondering because there’s a protest in Albany happening today with some of the other law enforcement unions, they’re asking for these rollbacks to be considered, and were at a crime state press conference, so I’m not sure –

Commissioner Shea: Let me, let me just – I’ll say the last thing on this. Another reason why I’m optimistic here, because I think we on the law enforcement side as well as the defense side, as well as the prosecution side, have a unique lens into how the criminal justice system works. I think that every time I speak on the bail reform it’s in support of it, in the principal of it, why it was done. I think that is all essential part of this discussion. Leveling the playing field, being fair about criminal justice in New York. I think we can get to a good place with small fixes. Tony?

Question: Commissioner, related, you talked about this, a part from bail reform that’s been the issue of [inaudible] –

Mayor: Thanks, Tony.

Commissioner Shea: Is that a different topic, Tony?

[Laughter]

Question: Well it’s sort of a different topic. Was the discovery changes a possibility I think there are fears that witnesses were going to be intimidated coming forward. Does that throw neighborhood policing a sort of curveball?

Commissioner Shea: Well documented Tony that it’s a concern of mine, but again, you know, I’ve been all around this country. Where would you rather be than New York City, with everything that New York City is, with every different neighborhood, with the people that you meet? People in New York City and our cops, we will get through this. Is it a challenge? Absolutely it’s a challenge, but we will find a way out of this. Katie?

Question: I have a non-bail question, and for you and the Mayor, I know there is an uptick in assaults in homeless shelters and I was wondering if there is any indication to what’s driving that? And to the Mayor, is there any concern about the security at these homeless shelters? I know the security company at one of the homeless shelters is under investigation for contract issues, so is that concern something that you and DHS and DSS in the future are looking at with the NYPD?

Mayor: Yeah, the crucial part is with the NYPD part. So, Katie, for years and years there was a fundamental mistake made in this city which is that the NYPD was not connected to shelters security and what we did a few years ago is to – we devoted the idea of – to guide ourselves to the idea that the NYPD would supervise shelter facility and train shelter security. This was the watershed to take the abilities of the NYPD and ensure that shelters were being made secure in a much more modern and effective way. That doesn’t mean it’s over. There is obviously a lot of complexities of to keeping a shelter safe and we’re looking at everything when we see situation like that and anything we need to improve.

But I also have seen real progress, and I’m convinced we can continue to make the shelter safer and I think it’s interesting, for a long time people were looking at a statistic, very importantly, where homeless people are coming off the street and the connection between their concerns about safety and whether they are willing to come off the street. We now saw with HOME-STAT 2,450 people come off the street. That is an indicator that the message has gotten out there, the security situation is better, and there are shelters you can go to and be safe, but we definitely have more work to do.

 

Question: [Inaudible] housing fund came out with a survey where 50 percent of domestic violence victims in shelters felt they were unsafe and it's largely because the HRA shelters don't have capacity for all the victims in the city. And now we hear that 34 percent of felony assault victims are domestic violence victims. So, I'm wondering if you can address that.

Mayor: There’s – especially with domestic violence, which is an area that we have to do so much more on as a society, let alone the city. If those survivors don't feel safe, we've got work to do unquestionably. And we will go and assess what's happening in those facilities and what we need to do better. I hear that, I take it very seriously.

Anything else on the crime numbers, Rocco?

Question: I was surprised that in mentioning the recidivism in crime – you mentioned probation and parole, but you didn't mention bail. I was wondering if there was any reason for that?

Chief LiPetri: Bail as far as what?

Question: As far as the people who are out on bail, committing crimes. You mentioned parole, you mentioned probation, but you didn’t mention bail. Is that a major factor in New York?

Chief LiPetri: It’s something that we look at and, you know, I have no problem getting back to you and giving you some of my data.

Question: We're a few blocks from where Tessa Majors was murdered. I’m wondering if you could provided us the update on that case and also the status of [inaudible] changed the robberies [inaudible] this month [inaudible] happened to that woman. [Inaudible] safe for students –

Commissioner Shea: Thanks, Jonathan. It’s hard to come to this building and not think about Morningside Park, we’re literally right here. I'll turn it over to Rodney – Chief Harrison, in a second on the investigation. But in terms of the park, Fausto Pichardo, to my right, put a lot of work in, working with the community, working with different leaders in terms of providing increased deployment, working on obtaining lighting for the park that wasn't in place before. Probably for all of these reasons, we've seen a pretty significant drop off and reported crime in the park since that incident, which is a positive. Unfortunately, it's not changing what happened. I'll turn it to Rodney in terms of the investigation.

Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison, NYPD: So, good afternoon. And I'm going to apologize in advance – if everybody [inaudible] came to understand this by now, it's a judicial process that we don't want to have compromised. We're working hand in hand with the district attorney's office, but at this time we’re not going to discuss the intricacies of the case, regarding the investigation.

Commissioner Shea: Sorry, Jonathan. You knew that was the answer though.

Question: [Inaudible] for instance, when was the last time you saw [inaudible]?

Chief LiPetri: So, we have to go back to the actual month of January, would be 2014. In 2014, we had 8,745 crimes. As far as an increase comparing it to the prior years, month, you have to go back to ‘11 and ‘12 to see somewhat of the same amount of [inaudible] number increase.

Question: [Inaudible] January 2014 was the last month there was this total number of [inaudible] –

Chief LiPetri: Well, comparing it to January. But if you look at total crime last year, July, August, September, October, all those months had more raw numbers than this January. Look, we understand the issues. Again, let's remember, we're talking about victims here. We're not talking about complaint reports. We're talking about victims. And that's – you know, the NYPD is all about public safety and serving the community of the City of New York. So, you know, if you want to ask me numbers, I can give you anything you want, but let's just remember the victims and let's remember, you know, why we are here today.

Question: Your envisioned changes for the bail reform laws, would they provide any more resources or alternative paths for people with mental illnesses?

Commissioner Shea: I'm sorry, repeat the last part again.

Question: Your [inaudible] changes for the bail reform laws provide any alternative paths or resources or options for judges dealing with defendants with mental illnesses?

Mayor: Again, there's a productive dialogue going on with leaders in Albany. We're not going to talk about the specifics of that dialogue. We're looking at a number of factors. I can say separate from that, we're always looking at the question of how to address mental health and its connection to criminal justice, which is an area that needs a lot more work. But in terms of specific conversations with leaders in Albany that we think will be part of getting to solutions, we're not going to lay out those details.

Question: Recently had a meeting in Sunnyside, Chief of Department Monahan urged representatives to report residents [inaudible] State representatives about the bail reform laws. Is that something you support? Officers advocating for public policy change, especially uniformed officers?

Mayor: I’ll let the Chief speak for himself. But, again, I don't think we could be more clear. The Commissioner and I have made our position clear.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Just let me finish what I'm saying. The Commissioner and I have made our position clear and there's work going on to address the issue, including in Albany. So, that's how we're approaching this as a city, as a police department, we're all on the same approach here, period.

Chief of Department Terence Monahan, NYPD: And as a city, everyone in the media is talking about this issue through. So, in our community council meetings throughout the city, we're explaining to people what the issues are as they go forward and questions about what needs to be done – well, as a police department, we're not making the changes, so I recommended if there's any issue that you have you reach out to your local elected officials.

Question: I noticed that the transit crime is up and I'm wondering if any of the transit crimes have to do with the increase in [inaudible] graffiti. I wonder if it’s a bigger problem and what the NYPD is doing to deal with [inaudible]?

Commissioner Shea: Chief Delatorre?

Chief Delatorre: No, transit crime is up primarily due to robberies. We're up about 60 crimes, 40 of them are robberies and the overwhelming majority of those robberies were in Brooklyn. Within Brooklyn, we had a lot of small groups out there committing these robberies and we've pretty much arrested most of those groups, if not all admit this point. So, we're looking forward to seeing those robberies now stabilize and go back to normal levels.

Question: [Inaudible]

Chief of Transit Edward Delatorre, NYPD: Yes, so we we've been dealing with that for some time now. The actual – those large-scale graffiti issues were actually down last year, not up. We have specialized teams that work with Interpol and international police throughout the world actually to track these tourists that come into New York to commit these graffiti crimes. We track them and we've had some significant arrests in those areas as well.

Question: [Inaudible]

Chief Delatorre: We know that in the past had been tourists that come to New York for that purpose, to graffiti a train. And we –

Commissioner Shea: Be careful of the [inaudible] of tourists. We certainly have homegrown people that do graffiti from time to time, but we also have people that do this for a living and they come here and they travel from city to city in some cases from out of the country. I wouldn't quite label that as a tourist, but I think you know what I mean.

[Laughter]

Question: There have been a number of instances in the last week or two where whole trains have been painted from one end to the other [inaudible]. I'm wondering if you have any idea who these people are, if you have any [inaudible]?

Chief Delatorre: That's still under investigation, but we know that, again, it's these traveling artists for the most part that come from other parts of the country, sometimes in the city and sometimes other –

Mayor: But I'm surprised by that last part of the question. Does the NYPD have any hope of arresting someone who – Marcia, come on you, you showed your hand a little there, with all due respect. The question –

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: I'm giving you an answer. I'm giving you an answer. The NYPD has an extraordinary, extraordinary record of arresting people who commit crimes. We take graffiti very seriously. We take quality of life very seriously. Again, you either want to root for New York City or you want to root against it. So, let's be clear – if some people have graffitied a train, the overwhelming chance is they will be found and arrested and prosecuted just like every other crime in New York City. This is the finest police force in the nation. I don't know if you or anyone else has suddenly lost faith in it – well, I think that's your problem. But the fact is this, this NYPD knows how to fight crime and takes graffiti very seriously.

Question: [Inaudible] if somebody from another country, if you were going to go to another country and arrested this person –

Mayor: I'm simply saying it's just – let's not smokescreen this. Does the NYPD know how to fight crime more effectively than a police force on earth? Yes, and they find perpetrators constantly. Let's be clear about that.

Question: You mentioned the youth initiative and you said we're going to be looking at youths and missed intervention opportunities. You mentioned a specific number of crimes and people. I just wondered if you could elaborate what exactly that means. Are you going to go back to find young people who have offended and do what exactly?

Chief LiPetri: That's what’s part of – you know, what YouthStat’s about. There are going to be many different agencies at the [inaudible] center to talk this out. And, again, we are going to be asking Corp Council, we're going to be asking the Manhattan DA's office when it comes to prosecution – is there something more that we could do to better prosecute these crimes? We're going to also be asking Corporation Council and the Manhattan DA's office for certain things. We're going to be speaking to probation about the adjustment period and what they can tell us – can they tell us certain things. Also, when I say missed opportunities, I mean looking at juvenile reports, maybe, you know, the most minor offenses. Did we follow up with that juvenile? Did we follow up with his or her guardian? You know, maybe it's a school issue – did we follow up with the principal of the school, whoever it might be – the family coordinator from the school? So, again, this is a multipronged approach using many different agencies.

Commissioner Shea: Are there other opportunities in that neighborhood to existing services that maybe the officer that responds to the initial incident doesn't know about to connect that kid – the mother is calling the police and saying, you know, the son and the daughter had a fight or the son and the daughter broke something or I can't control my son. So, I think that there's incredible opportunities to connect to services, to work with other partners and providers. And that's one of the things that resonate with me when I go around the city and I have this conversation. And I've had multiple people come up to me and say, I've been waiting for that discussion for so long. We're already doing it. How do we get involved? How do we help? So, I don't view this as an NYPD solution, but we’re damn sure going to be a big part of it and we are very excited about it.

Unknown: Just a couple more questions, guys. One or two –

Commissioner Shea: I'll do Julia and then Ashley.

Question: Mr. Mayor, you said that you're repulsed by these anti-police protests in the subway. Is that the first time you've denounced them today?

Mayor: No, I denounced them on Saturday when they were over and I've denounced similar things in the past.

Question: And then for the Commissioner, Pat Lynch talked about a political culture that denigrates and devalues the work police officers do. Would you like to see more elected officials come out and announce those protests?

Commissioner Shea: I would like to see all New Yorkers come out to be quite honest with you. I think that was amateur hour. I think they give good hardworking protestors is a bad name.

[Laughter]

Commissioner Shea: That was ridiculous. I mean, I think we could agree that, you know, having a cause and a protest is a good thing. I can remember walking, as I'm sure we all can, hours and hours with protests and 100 percent respect for many different causes over the last 29 years. That's part of this great country. But let's be clear – and I forget what paper it was, but there was an editorial on – this was not a protest, this was criminal activity by misguided people that were a bunch of knuckleheads, quite frankly. I mean, you’re lighting garbage can fires in a transit system. My God, what could possibly go wrong with that? Somebody falling down a stairs, a smoke condition – forget the damage to the property – pointing lasers in cops eyes. Really, how dare them. And we thank them for being stupid enough to videotape most of what they did because Rodney's detectives will be relentless to make sure they all get arrested.

Question: [Inaudible]

Commissioner Shea: I'm not done. Hold on. Really, strolling a lock at a plate glass window so a woman sitting inside the restaurant gets glass in her eye. I mean – they really – they should be ashamed of themselves. And to end where I started, every New Yorker should denounce it. That's not to say against protest. Protest is great. It's a healthy thing. But this was not a protest.

Question: Commissioner and Mayor, the infant who was killed at the end of last month, his father had a history of domestic violence and child abuse investigations by both the NYPD and ACS. How do you explain –

Commissioner Shea: Ashley, this is the Suffolk County incident?

Question: No, this is the Bronx.

Commissioner Shea: The Bronx, got it.

Question: How do you explain what happened here? Why these children were still in that home? And what – particularly, I want to know what the NYPD – if this family was under monitoring given their past history of domestic violence?

Chief Harrison: So, Ashley, if you don’t mind, I’ll run with that inquiry. So, a couple complaints did occur in 2015, 2016. But that was more geared with the father versus the mother. There was one incident that occurred in 2016, where the perpetrator of this heinous crime assaulted his wife, but yet at the same time during that process destroyed some of the toys of the kids. So, technically outside of that, there was necessarily no abuse towards the kids within that household. This was a horrific incident. He's been charged with murder. Hopefully he goes away forever and it's just something that it's very, very disturbing.

Commissioner Shea: Yeah, Ashley, I don't know if the Mayor wants to jump in, but I'll say before – I echo Rodney's thoughts there. As a parent, as I'm sure all of us feel, I mean, what a terrible, terrible incident. Anytime we have an incident such as this that occurs, whether it's a domestic violence homicide, an incident with a child, there's an intensive review that takes place in Chief Monahan’s domestic violence unit that takes place through the CompStat process to learn, you know, what, if anything could be done differently? What, if anything, was missed? Where are there gaps in the system? We will, you know, follow the law in these cases. But we, we certainly, you know, we'll make that part of the process going forward. There is nothing identified that has been brought to my attention with this case that was done inappropriately. But we certainly feel for the family.

Question: It's already part of the NYPD policy to monitor households where there are past histories of domestic violence. And in the last year, he's had at least two arrests for DV. So, I'm wondering if they were in fact being monitored. And I would also like the Mayor to address the ACS investigations, given that there were multiple.

Commissioner Shea: But there is a process that is outside the NYPD, determining taking children out of a home. So, that's not something – if there was an imminent fear in a particular situation, then ACS would be notified and ultimately a judge would make a determination. We do follow up on domestic violence incidents routinely through this city [inaudible] outreach. We have domestic violence officers as well as advocates that are assigned in every precinct and throughout PSA’s throughout this city, because we put such a priority on it. But unfortunately, we still do have incidents that take place from time to time.

Mayor: Ashley – okay, go ahead.

Question: [Inaudible] Mr. Mayor. Part of that monitoring when the officers from the precinct go and follow up with the family, if you have an a couple where there's partner – intimate partner violence, but there are children at home, are you also looking at the children?

Commissioner Shea: Absolutely. Again, that's all voluntary though. This is all voluntary. There's no court order. There's no right for us to go into somebody's home. So, it's a very delicate situation.

Mayor: Ashley, to the question – and, again, I'm responding as a parent as well – we need to know how this happened, why this happened, how it was possible this happened. You won't be surprised to know there's a really strict confidentiality issues anytime we're talking about an ACS case, but I think your question is a very fair one. Is there the kind of coordination that we need to have between all different agencies to make sure a child is safe? That's exactly what we're looking at right now and we'll have more to say as we get the full investigation back.

[…]

Mayor: Okay. Off topic – way back there.

Question: Bronx Community Board 11 was told by the Department of Homeless Services that they are responsible for 829 homeless people for their community board. [Inaudible] of the homeless population [inaudible] DHS with adult females and adult males making up the rest of it. There are more females than men. There is a 200-bed adult male shelter being proposed to Community Board 11 in the Bronx. That [inaudible] number of homeless people that community board would be responsible for over 2,000 people [inaudible] CB 11 would be the first, you know, people to go in there, then the rest of the Bronx, and the rest of the city. Now we’ve spoken about this about two years ago, about sending people up to the Bronx, homeless people. Is that continuing [inaudible] and why is the Bronx community board –

Mayor: No, no, no. That's –

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: I think you’re bringing a couple of different strands together. Let me try and make it quick. The concept that was announced two-and-a-half years ago, the Turning the Tide plan was to have increasingly folks who are homeless first, more and more, in their home borough and then more and more in their home neighborhood, home community board. That has been proceeding aggressively. We also are trying to make sure that each community board, over time, it won't happen overnight, has the amount of shelter to reflect the number of people they have in the shelter system. It is not a perfect match all the time. It takes time. Sometimes we have to address other realities. For example, in recent months there's been an increase in the number of single males going into shelter compared to what we saw previously. So there's a lot of moving parts, but you're – where you started is exactly right. Where we are moving to is if someone's from the Bronx, they are sheltered in the Bronx. If they're from a certain neighborhood, they're sheltered in that neighborhood as close to it as possible. We're kind to align the numbers over time, close hotels, close clusters, put in new shelters to create that balance. That's what's proceeding.

Question: [Inaudible] changed policy from keeping them in the community boards to keeping them in borough?

Mayor: Again, I think you're forgetting – as it was announced it was, move first from a system where if you're from the Bronx for decades, you could have been sent to Queens, Manhattan, Brooklyn. It didn't matter. There was no recognition of where you were from. Now it is, move people as close to where they are from as possible, is the rule. It doesn't always happen that way for a variety of reasons, but it is borough first and then more and more towards the neighborhood. Okay, go ahead.

Question: Mayor, do you have an update on the [inaudible] coronavirus [inaudible] past 48 hours [inaudible]?

Mayor: Yeah, I am hoping for that result very soon. It could come to us in the next few hours, but we were told originally it could certainly be longer than that. No later than tomorrow but hopefully at some point tonight. We don't have results. We have three cases that are being looked at right now where the testing has been sent and we're waiting for the results. Yeah?

Question: [Inaudible] satisfied with what the investigation [inaudible] handle such allegations [inaudible]?

Commissioner Shea: I'll speak a little bit cryptically here, Rocco. I am familiar with it. The day it happened and several days since, I've had very detailed discussions with Joe Reznick, and review of the entire process on the PD side. With that being said I'll say two things. Number one, obviously there's a very important criminal investigation that is ongoing. So I'm not going to comment much, but I am at this point comfortable with the NYPD side, how it was handled. We always can learn and do better, but there's nothing that jumped at me in the review with Joe Reznick that was handled inappropriately on our side.

Mayor: Go ahead.

Question: You mentioned [inaudible] a lot of people agree with you on that. Have you done an analysis of who these people are [inaudible] why they’re doing it, what is creating the anger? I mean obviously you’re reaching out [inaudible] a lot of those kids are from [inaudible] –

Commissioner Shea: The answer is no, I have not. But I would say that the ages of the individuals that I saw arrested, there were some kids, there were many people in their 30s, so I wouldn't categorize, I could be wrong on this, but I think that it was a great many people that were not children.

Question: So we have a story about an anti-gang activist who was actually charged with threatening to assault someone a couple of weeks before [inaudible] met him. So I was just wondering if you were aware that he was arrested for making a Bloods gang threat before you met? And curious if like the detail should have known about that and what kind of vetting goes into who you get to meet and shake hands with. I know that there's a lot of impromptu meetings with regular people, but this was like an official meeting.

Mayor: Yeah. Look, this is a case that causes me concern. Someone who is supposed to be an example to everyone else of helping to rid communities of violence needs to hold himself to a high standard. Now there's a charge and I always will say to you, due process matters in this society. So we have to see what happens as a result of that due process to really understand the fullness of this case. But I take it seriously and I know that the approach that organization is being modified by the City, but it's an organization that had a long history of helping to reduce violence in the community and this individual did as well. So I think the complicating factor here was a meeting was called of people who had a proven track record of working to reduce violence in communities and he was certainly one of them. I don't think the flow of information was good. I don't think the vetting was what it should have been, but I do understand why he would have been invited to a meeting of people who had been key members of a movement that really did help us reduce violence.

Question: Just a follow-up on that. You mentioned vetting for the actual meeting – are you satisfied with the overall vetting process for the City’s crisis management system?

Mayor: I’m looking at the track record over six years and what we have seen – that the crisis management system has made a profound contribution to reducing gun violence, to moving young people away from gangs, to stopping retaliations before they can happen. And if you look at the track record of the Cure Violence movement, it's clearly contributed to safety in this city and I believe it is absolutely right that we keep supporting the Cure Violence movement. I can only think honestly of a handful of times where there were individual situations that raised a concern. So, if you're looking at the overall track record, the overall vetting, it seems to me it's been very consistent.

Question: There are a number of people who say they don't feel as safe in the City as they used to. I wonder what you would say to them.

Mayor: I would say to them that New York City is unquestionably the safest big city in America. It is proven time and time again. I would say to them we have the finest police force in this country, that every time it’s confronted with a new challenge finds a way to address it. And I would say there are a lot of people out there who are fear mongers who are trying to denigrate New York City and take us in the wrong direction. We're not going to go in the wrong direction. New York City is safe and will continue to get safer. We have challenges, unquestionably, and if someone doesn't feel safe we have more to do, but there's a whole lot of people out there who are trying to sell the story that it's not a safe city. That's just a lie. That's what I’d tell them.

Go ahead.

Question: Back to the homeless domestic violence victims. You pledged in 2015, 400 new specialized housing units for victims. You only have 119 open. What accounts for the delay? And then I have a quick separate question for the Commissioner.

Mayor: I need to get the latest and we'll come back to you quickly. The last I saw – I think you're right, there was a delay – and the last I saw our team thought they were going to close that gap quickly, but I’ve got to get more for you on when and what caused the delay.

Question: Commissioner, what do you think about a recent story that said because you are a Republican you may not uphold the Mayor's immigration policies?

Question: I think it's the kind of talk honestly that – I think what better than that, that labeling people and their beliefs because of one party – I think we’re better than that, quite honestly. And I appreciate the Mayor’s diversity.

Mayor: Yes. We believe we believe in letting everyone participate in this administration. He's Republican. I'm a Democrat. Show me your right hand –

[Laughter]

See? Look, we can work together. We're going to be an example to our nation.

Go ahead.

Question: You spoke about how the public should have faith in the police given the uptake in the uptick in crime amid this bail reform. I was just wondering if the public should have [inaudible] judges to exercise discretion when it comes to the dangerousness and [inaudible] the Legislature to understand and the public needs to understand. And then, for the Police Commissioner, can update us on the terror threat situation after the Iran missile strike, along with some –

Mayor: Okay, two very two very different topics. I believe that what the State laws need to address – judicial discretion more effectively. I have felt this for years and years before we ever talked about bail reform. I particularly talked about this after the horrible killing of Officer Randolph Holder, which, to me, was one of the most profound examples of why judges who can only in many cases make a decision based on flight risk, need to be given the discretion to understand if someone poses a greater threat, but with real strong checks and balances, because those who say we need to make sure that our justice system is fair to everyone – they’re right. And so, it's not something that should be offered without clear sharp guidelines and checks and balances. But I think doing that would help us to be safer. And I believe, again, there's a very productive dialogue going on right now with all the different leaders in Albany. The fact is, I think that dialogue is moving in a good direction. The Commissioner and I spoke this morning with Speaker Heastie and had a long and detailed and positive conversation. So, I think the idea here is while the NYPD does what it always does, which is dealing with everything thrown at it, there is an important dialogue going on with our State leaders to figure out a way forward.

Commissioner Shea: So, Jonathan, whether it was a month ago or as recently as this week in London, we consider the monitor incidents around the globe, oftentimes with our intelligence partners that may have any impact, may or may not, on New York City and New Yorkers. At this time, there is no credible threat directly related to those, but we continue to monitor and deploy accordingly.

Question: How do you – you talk about dangerousness how exactly do you propose for judges or the Legislature to allow judges to consider dangerousness, especially given that this is something that the Legislature rejected 40 years ago and last year because of the worries about the disparate impact on people of color who live in certain neighborhoods and even the evidence from New Jersey that while even thousands of people have been released, the incarceration rates remain unchanged.

Mayor: The notion to me of judicial discretion revolves around the contradiction in our bail system broadly before this law, just in general, that it was based on money. And that in fact there were – and I heard this from judges constantly when I was interviewing candidates to be judges and interviewing candidates who were already judges for additional terms – that the dynamic –look, it's a foundational American concept that bail is based on flight risk. What if someone is not a flight risk, but for very specific and objective reasons could be a threat to the surrounding community? There is a way, I think, and we're working on that specific language to address that real-world condition, but to ensure it's done equitably. And I think that has to do with a lot of the history about an individual, including things like have they followed judicial orders previously, parole, probation, a whole host of issues can be looked at that give you objective measures. But the notion, even though I agree we start with the perspective of justice and fairness, the notion that we don't have any ability to address when someone may be a threat in a responsible manner that also respects our devotion to equality. I'm sorry, I think we can walk and chew gum. I think we can do both.

Question: [Inaudible] judges were using their discretion to keep defendants behind bars with the previous law because of what they consider to be dangerousness. So, what specifically can they use to measure dangerousness? What – is there anything that you think empirically can help them measure –

Mayor: Yes. And, again, I'm pointing to you only directionally – I’m not putting a legislative proposal in front of you. There's an ongoing dialogue where that is being worked through. But it is a combination of past offenses and past responses to judicial orders and other indicators. But I would disagree with your opening statement there – maybe there have been instances where judges for one reason or another were able to hold someone in beyond flight risk. I think there have been, that's a true statement. Where I disagree with you is, it is not been sufficient. So, if we know there have been people who judges deem they could not hold because they didn't have flight risk as a rationale and those people tragically did some really bad things, we have to figure out how to strike a balance but not go back in the wrong direction of a system that allows bias. One of the things we've said throughout this process – the Commissioner and I both – is, the impulse of the Legislature was correct to address the issues where there was historic bias, whether it was based on race or economics. That is absolutely directionally correct and a lot of good has been done. But that doesn't mean that, you know, history moves in just one massive broad stroke or another. We've got to strike some balance in the equation and I think we can find a way to do that. But that's what the conversations with Albany are all about.

Rich?

Question: Mr. Mayor, Iowa –

Mayor: I've been there, Rich.

[Laughter]

Seems like a very confusing state, don’t you think?

Question: Because of what happened out there hurt the Democrats, the President’s already tweeting about this – do you have [inaudible] New Hampshire [inaudible]?

Mayor: Look, I'm not a professional pundit, but I will offer the obvious. It's not helpful. I don't think it's fatal, but it's not helpful. It's sad after so much effort was put in that things went that way. But what it does – I agree with the last part of your question – I think it has created enough confusion that it's kind of upgraded New Hampshire and other states’ values in the process because we don't even know what to think.

Gloria?

Question: Are you worried that there will be – this opposition to bail reform? And, you know, there are some who are saying that Republicans have nothing to campaign on. It is an election – re-election year in Albany, and that they need this to be the centerpiece and that they're trying to take back the majority and that this will be the deciding thing. I'm just asking if you see it as a purely political strategy from their part and nothing else?

Mayor: Look, I don't know what the Republicans are doing. I think this State, and we've seen it now in so many indicators, presidential races, gubernatorial races, State Senate, Congress, you name it – this is a Democratic state and a progressive state and, in a lot of ways, getting more so. And you now have a reality where it is perfectly plausible, the State Senate Democrats will have a veto-proof majority that's absolutely within reach in a presidential year. I mean, you know, you do this for a living, the presidential year usually in a state like this means a much higher Democratic turnout. I think it will. So, I don't know what the Republicans are up to. I do believe that resolving this issue productively is just good for everyone. I think it's the right thing to do as a matter of public policy and I think it shows that the Legislature's working with everyone and listening to everyone. I think that's just a smart way to approach things.

Go ahead, Anna.

Question: How much of the $300,000 in legal fees have you paid off or is that still not been paid off?

Mayor: It's still outstanding.

Question: And when are you going to set up a legal fund?

Mayor: There are still questions about how to do that appropriately. We're working through, but as soon as we get that resolved, we will, and we'll start the fundraising.

Go ahead, Erin.

Question: [Inaudible] budget director said this morning that when the City was paying a share of Medicaid [inaudible] they were much more engaged in managing the cost of the program and dealing with it if there was a deficiency. And he said they're just not doing that anymore.

Mayor: That’s just tiredly false. I respect him. You're talking about Mr. Mujica.

Question: Yes.

Mayor: I respect him. We come from different parties and philosophies, but he is a very serious government professional and I respect him. But that's just plain false. We pay the 25 percent base still. We always – we have for a long, long time. We don't run the Medicaid program. I mean, come on people. How stupid do they think people are? Let's get real. The State of New York runs the Medicaid program. They set the policies, they set the standards. We enroll. And I've talked to colleagues around this state, mayors, county executives – I mean, people are really upset, Democrats and Republicans alike. They're like, how is it that the State of New York is not telling the truth about how it works? We don't set the policies. The expansion in enrollment was a State decision, and I applaud them for working to get more people health care, but just own the decision – own it. They did that, they did the increase in the minimum wage, I applaud them. But don't act like they didn't do it. And we've been trying to work with them – you saw Commissioner Banks’ letter – we've been trying to work with them on cost savings. We think there's hundreds of millions that could be saved. We'll work with them productively. We've been trying for a long time. I just think it's time for people to be honest about how we move forward together. We're ready to work with them.

Question: [Inaudible] he says the Legislature may have violated the Constitution because it’s a violation of the separation of powers, that the Legislature can’t tell judges how they should make decisions. And I wonder if you think that that’s an argument that might lead [inaudible] bail reform?

Mayor: It's a perfectly fair question, I'm just not familiar with that argument. I can't comment. Again, I think the bottom line is – I think the legislative leaders in Albany are engaging with us in a very productive, open dialogue. That's what I know. But I don't know enough about the law to answer otherwise.

Gloria?

Question: Mr. Mayor, anything you could tell us about State the City this week? I know you said yesterday that it was going to be about people, but I wondered if you could –

Mayor: I think I said more than it was going to be about people.

Question: I was wondering if you could elaborate [inaudible].

Mayor: Look, I think after six years we know a lot now about which strategic approaches have worked and where there are areas where we've got to do things differently. We know about what problems have been ones that we could confront effectively and which are more intractable. It’s time to have a very straightforward conversation with New Yorkers about where we stand. So, it is going to feel different than a traditional State of the City, because I think – and I've had this conversation with people all over the city – I think people want some real talk about what's happening and things we need to do differently. And I feel real sense of urgency, because I've got about 700 days left and we've got a lot to do. But the urgency I get from New Yorkers is their fear about the city and its future, particularly when it comes to affordability. And so, I'm going to try and address that head-on in the speech on Thursday.

Thanks, everyone.